Friday, February 27, 2015

Day in the life on Opportunity Farm

Friday - the end of the school week. Four of our children catch the interstate primary school bus at about 8:15 so the hour or more before contains the usual recipe of lost socks, bad hair and porridge. The kids are pretty good at getting up and being organized but there are still plenty of calls to "Hurry up or you'll miss the bus."
I like to walk them the 800m or so to where the bus stops - the pleasure of small warm hands to hold and drag up the hill.
Hailey is standing in the dairy demanding breakfast so milking is the next task. The calf is let in and the milk strained and put in the fridge.
One of the goat kids is limping so when I take up some feed to the girls and to poor Curly - still locked in the shed after his fence jumping exploits - I catch the little brown haired doe. This doe has a lot of spirit and before she was too big would frequently get through the hinge-joint fence and wander about. She tugs and cries but when I hold up legs and place her on her back she quietens. After plenty of poking, prodding and bending I can find nothing wrong with the leg - it could be a muscle injury. She is let go - I'll have to keep an eye on her.

The kid with the sore leg
 
The guinea pig cages need moving, more lettuce, grain and water. The dogs get some more of the deer bones from the carcass butchered here by our neighbour a few days ago.

Toby enjoying some deer bones
 
Harley the pony has eaten all his paddock and the round bale of last season's hay so he needs a bit more grass. A gate shift and he has access to the grass at the back of a shed. It will keep him happy for a couple of days.
I have to unload the car from last night's trip to town. A freebie blue barrel that used to contain truck wash is headed for the septic system in the paddock and a box of apples has to be sorted between worth ripening or pig food.
The pigs need their combination of rotten fruit, excess zucchinis, kitchen scraps and pig grower pellets. They've kicked over their food trough but they go crazy over the surplus milk. The container I pour it into is attached to their water trough. It was a good size a few weeks ago but now the pushing and shoving that goes on will smash it to pieces and strain sisterly relations. I pause to reflect while the water refills.

Pig trough filling

The yard is growing dock and thistles so an hour with the whipper-snipper gets some of it back to a flat earth policy.
The regular tasks over I gather some tools and materials to head out to the far paddock to nail on the deck for the camp toilet block. The battery on the farm ute is flat so I walk. Two hours of happy banging and cutting and the deck is done.

Deck done!
 
On the way back I notice one of the lambs is sneaking round the end of the electric fence so that needs fixing up. Then it is over to the chooks. The little bantam is clucky again. When I move her off there is only one egg underneath. Not enough eggs in the box means a search which finds a large stash of eggs under a bush. The most timid chook hasn't the nerve to make it to the hen house. Now the box is occupied some of the others must have joined her.

While I am there I climb into the potato patch which is between the chook runs to dig up some spuds for dinner. First I have to clear the raspberry canes from the net so it can be stored away till next berry season. Three potato plants reveal about twenty Dutch Cream taties - enough for now.
Time to do some weeding in the bed I need to plant some winter crops in before....

It's time for the kids to straggle back over the paddock. The rest of the day is spent in domestic bliss with lots of singing - five are in a Country Music Talent Quest tomorrow. All in a day's work.





 

Thursday, February 26, 2015

When the Buck doesn't Stop

Curly is a third season Australian Brown cross Bitsa buck. Last season he was just big enough and keen enough to serve one of our does, Princess. His little sister, Christina, we decided was too young and we kept her away from the bucks.
Goats are known to cycle through autumn - late February to Mid March - to produce kids five months later in spring. We figured that if we avoided pregnancy during autumn then the window was closed and kids would be put off for a year. We were wrong and greatly surprised when we found a small brown kid buck following Christina about in December when we had no idea she was pregnant. Curly was the father.

This summer we separated the bucks and the does into three groups - Meat does with Cedric, Dairy does with Curly and the young and as yet unattached in a separate paddock. While Cedric is a diminutive poddy who is too lazy to climb fences and chase skirt in other paddocks we have discovered that Curly is not.

Last night on dark he had escaped through a decent fence to get into the laneway and was calling through a second fence to Posy, whose heat was obvious by the very close attentions being paid by Cedric. Posy is ever the opportunist so she was calling back to Curly and waving her butt at him.
We went to bed to the sound of Curly's alto "Naa-aa-aa" and Cedric's bass "Bworr".

First light this morning revealed that Curly had hopped through the second fence and was chasing Posy around, while being harassed by Cedric who wasn't best pleased to have a rival on his turf.
It took about half an hour for the two boys to clash heads and work out who was the boss. Curly retreated to a safe distance and waited for his chance.



I was daunted by the prospect of trying to drag a very fired up buck back to his paddock just to find that he escaped again. Another factor was that Christina, ensconced in the single females paddock, was calling out to whoever would come and relieve her itch. Moving Curly would involve getting him past her paddock. We decided to leave him where he was.

There was a busy morning away planned so when we returned Curly was nowhere to be seen. A quick check of the paddocks found that he had climbed through three more fences to be beyond the 'girls' paddock and in with the sheep. I locked his sister, their kid and one other young doe in the shed and walked away. Returning twenty minutes later Curly had recrossed our fences and was back chasing Posy, who was still running away from Cedric. By dusk he was back hassling last year's kids so in the shed he went and the girls locked out.

So what have we learnt from this. After a few years with only a docile Boer buck who stayed put, we now have a situation that needs careful management. It will be almost impossible to keep any doe from being served. Either we lock Curly up or the does or let him have free rein. The latter may work now but once the does are all his kids it doesn't. We will have to have a rethink - maybe we can pass the buck and swap him with someone else in the same boat.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Dealing with Tomatoes

At this time of year I am picking 15 to 20 litres of tomatoes  a week - that is up to two 10l ice cream containers full. It is probably the main crop in our vegie garden along with the amazingly prolific zucchinis. We turn this glut of red into pasta sauce - a versatile concoction that can be used a myriad of different ways. So far this season we have put aside about 75 jars with the aim being for about a hundred - 2 a week for the next year.

In the garden the tomato vines are trained up pieces of bailer twine. Once the plant is big enough a simple knot is tied around the stem and the twine is stretched up to the roof of the caged garden. The chook wire roof is about 2 metres tall so a simple slip knot through the wire holds it tight but also allows for release if the knot is pulled.

As the plant grows I snip or pinch out all the side shoots and wind the growing tip around the twine. If the plant gets to the top of the twine and tries to head out through the top I cut it down as I can't access the fruit and the aim is to encourage the plant to put its maximum effort into making fruit.

Of the 17 garden beds there are four that are dedicated to tomato plants. Unwisely two of these beds held tomatoes last year and so by last week some of the leaves were wilting and the plants looking past their prime. I applied some organic liquid fertilizer to all the plants - 40ml of concentrate to 9l of water and then applied to the roots with a watering can. This has really helped the plants to start to look healthier and produce more green shoots and flowers.
 



The varieties that grow best are ones that are small enough to ripen before any insect attack - we are slowly having a problem with fruit fly due to milder conditions and absentee landowners with caged gardens not picked. Tigerella is a wonderful variety - about 75g a fruit with beautiful yellow stripes, San Marzano and Amish Paste are a similar size and hence ideal for picking in large quantities for the pot.  Grosse Lisse fruits grow to about 250g but due to their smooth skin are less prone to attack or rot than the Costoluto Genovese or Granny's Throwing Tomato. For drying Principe Borghese is probably the best with lots of small fruit that can be halved and dried in the sun -  though we never seem to get round to this and those tomatoes we have dried don't seem too popular with most of the family.
My favourite this year is Speckled Roman. It ripens with a much yellower colour but with fascinating stripes. The flavour is excellent and it grows in sufficient quantities to make it a useful plant in a small garden.

A Ripe Speckled Roman Tomato


I've watched plenty of shows where an elderly Italian immigrant is grows infeasible amounts of tomatoes in a small suburban backyard. There is some comment about how the guy is always to be found in summer tending to his plants. I can relate to the pleasure looking after tomatoes can bring - so no matter what tasks fall by the wayside I look forward to being in the vegie patch for many many more years - tying up, pinching out and weeding.

Early Morning Light


 
Some days early rising is compulsory. Our primary aged children attend school three days a week in the community where our bush property is. We have to leave by 8.15am in order to get there in time for the start of school. If we are staying the night the animals have to be dealt with before then.

Hailey has to be milked – she will get a day off while we are away. It always drops production a little but we don’t want to miss two in a row. The pigs need a heap of food and their water topped up – especially today when it is going to be 35 degrees.  The guinea pigs need fresh ground to chew and the dogs need some exercise before being chained up while we are away. The chooks can manage without us for a while and the other animals have decent summer pastures and dams.


 

When I first emerged with my milking pail and washcloth it was just after 6.30am. As I sat next to Hailey amid the rhythmic streams of cascading milk the mist was rising just enough to outline the tall trees at the base of the mountain. I wished for my camera and wondered whether pixels could do justice to the beauty of the scene. As the light strengthened and thinned the mist the animals become more vocal and important business of finding food could begin in earnest. By the time I fetched the camera the sun was almost out and the mist was sinking into the valley.


 
 
Down at the pigpen Blanche, Petunia and Maud were very excited. They were drooling over the containers of rotting fruit, pig grower pellets and kitchen scraps.

Curly walked determinedly past, his tongue half out and making a snickering sound in the back of his throat. Honey's tail was wagging eloquently of her desire to be served. Curly repeatedly rested his head on her back; they exchanged sniffs of vital parts and stamped feet while circling around each other.
Fifteen seconds of action and half Curly's work for the year was completed. Five months to new kid. Hopefully a doe as Honey and Curly have the best dairy genes. Maybe that elusive big udder and decent sized teats might be the result of that early morning tryst. Any later rising and I would have missed it.

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Currant Wine

This morning we bottled our currant wines. We have five redcurrant bushes and three blackcurrant bushes and just before Christmas each year they are laden. It always surprises me that the birds don't devour them but we only lose a few to the greedy Labrador.
We made some jam but as we hadn't finished all last year's supply most of the redcurrants went into the 25 litre plastic barrel.
There are enough natural tannins and yeasts in the skins to start the fermentation. After a couple of weeks of madly bubbling we transferred the 'juice' into a 20 litre demijohn. The barrel was freed up for the excess blackcurrants and the excess musk and skins went to make the piglets have a delirious afternoon and a long nap. A week later the blackcurrants followed

into a second demijohn. We left them in the kitchen on the unused wood stove. This way we couldn't miss where the air in the airlock was. As long as the bubble was pushing the water away it was still fermenting.
For the past six weeks there has been a steady but slowly decreasing plopping sound as the bubble of air made its escape.

Today we decided they had gone far enough. We tested the specific gravity of the wine with a hygrometer. The redcurrant was 1.100 and the blackcurrant 0.990. All sounds very technical but we didn't really know what to do with this information, though a website advised that a good amount was between 0.900 and 1.0 so we decided to go ahead anyway. Both wines tasted very potent and like a liqueur - something to be savoured rather than drunk. We may well drink it watered down, with lemonade or tonic water.

To bottle it we put the demijohn on the table and put a two metre length of garden hose in the top. Michelle sucked until she had a mouthful of wine and we used the siphon effect to pour the wine into jugs. I collected the still warm but washed bottles from the oven where they had been sterilising and emptied the jugs in till the wine reached the collar at the top. If they are too full and there is still some fermentation happening there can be a mess and plenty of broken glass to pick up.

 
We had boiled some corks in preparation. We have a plastic corker which needs lubrication with some olive oil before the cork is inserted. If the corker is central the cork slides in fairly easily but a lot of effort can be put in if the bottle top is not central. The lids were then screwed back on over the cork. This ensures the cork is not compromised and also keeps the lid with the bottle in case its next recycling is not with a cork.

There are 16 bottles of red and 15 of black. They will be laid down on their sides on the concrete floor of the shed pantry until they are needed. Not so much a nutritional product but why should preserving not have an element of recreation and luxury. We drink very little in the way of alcohol but having our own cider and wine is a pleasure when the opportunity arises.

Friday, February 20, 2015

Self-Shedding Sheep

This morning we visited a retired couple living on a beautiful property with river frontage and a few acres of rocky pasture. As many 'retired' people are, they are too busy to spend lots of time looking after animals so they destocked. Now after such a wet season the grass has grown, the weeds are back and something needs to be done.
"Self-shedding sheep are what you need", we said. "It so happens we have too many."
So our excess may meet their need.


Our sheep are mostly Wiltshire Horn sheep though some of these are Wiltipolls - meaning they are exactly the same but without the horns. They all shed but some of them have woolly backs - patches that don't shed. They still don't need shearing but they look a bit ragged.

Wiltshire Horns are an ancient breed developed over hundreds of years on the Wiltshire Downs in England - coincidentally where I spent five of my teenage years. They almost died out as a breed but were brought back by a dedicated group of breeders who formed an association in 1923.
Now they are pretty popular, especially with homesteaders who are more interested in meat and grass control than producing fibre. Cutting out the shearing and crutching for small numbers of sheep makes Wiltshire Horns an easier investment. Their numbers in Australia are growing fast, along with more recent self-shedding varieties such as Dorpers. Commercially the meat is marketed as 'milder' and that mutton from these sheep can often pass as lamb.

Wiltshire Horns are hardy, they birth well without assistance and apparently because they are not putting energy into wool production they grow fast. Of all the animals on Opportunity Farm they are the most numerous and the least trouble. If we can get their numbers down by passing some onto people like our friends we visited today then they are about the easiest and quietest method of producing meat we have.

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Are we homesteading?


So what is it that we are doing? What do you call having a life with a focus on producing your own food and using more traditional methods to do everyday tasks?

There are many people around the world who are travelling a similar path and are sharing their experiences with others. We started buying books about people in the past who have lived inspiring, thoughtful and more self-sufficient lives. Henry David Thoreau, Jon Muir, Helen and Scott Nearing, and William Winchester all challenged the ‘norm’ of their times and their books were eagerly shared. (Most nights I read to Michelle and this connects us to each other and to the characters and ideas of these stories. If Michelle reads to me I simply fall asleep and have to reread the passage again!)  

Amazon’s clever marketing tool which recommends similar books led us to more modern authors who told their adventures and challenges on the land. Books like ‘Four Seasons with a Grumpy Goat’ about a couple of people who moved to Tasmania and had humorous, if naïve, experiences with various domestic animals, and ‘Better Off’ about a man who encouraged his newlywed to come with him to hang out in an Amish-style community and learn from them for a year are good examples.

Then we found Jenna Woginrich. The first book we read of hers told about her dreams to be a ‘homesteader’ while renting in the Appalachian Mountains. We followed her story to owning Cold Antler Farm and making a living out of writing an eloquent blog which she turned into books. She also runs courses about her lifestyle. We loved her books and found that her desire for homesteading matched best with our steady progress in creating a rewarding and healthy lifestyle.

In the UK the term seems to be ‘smallholding’ but this, to me, conjures up an image of a business and has nothing that describes the lifestyle other than ‘small’. What we live on in Australia is commonly called a ‘hobby farm’ but I don’t like this term either as what we are doing at the moment is more than a hobby. The term seems elitist, as if it equates with ‘rural residential’ where richer suburbanites move to a larger property out of town with enough ‘room for a pony’ and a few sheep to keep the grass down.

I like the word ‘homesteading’ for a number of reasons. For so many people in this fast-paced world of high suburban real estate prices their house is simply an asset. Somewhere to spend nights and improve to move up the property ladder. Not a home.



Opportunity Farm – warm and cosy in the snow

Opportunity Farm is a home. It has little commercial value, but plenty of sentimental value and it is the place where we work and play as well as bring up a family. It is at the heart of what we do.

Stead[e1] ’ implies strength and stability – steadfast and steady. Many of the activities on Opportunity Farm are similar or identical to those carried out for generations. Many of the lifestyle decisions we value and prioritize are counter to the latest fashions and technologies –though embracing a blog may challenge that. The routines and natural cycles of living closer to nature provide a structure and purpose to our daily life.

I put the problem to Wikipedia:

“Homesteading is a lifestyle of self-sufficiency. It is characterized by subsistence agriculture, home preservation of foodstuffs, and it may or may not also involve the small scale production of textiles, clothing, and craftwork for household use or sale.”

That fits. It went on:

“Modern homesteaders often use renewable energy options including solar electricity and wind power and some even invent DIY cars. Many also choose to plant and grow heirloom vegetables and to raise heritage livestock. Homesteading is not defined by where someone lives, such as the city or the country, but by the lifestyle choices they make.”

Sounds like us. I am happy to be a ‘homesteader’. Further down the article was this gem:

It is less costly to purchase a handful of seeds, dig a trench in the earth or fill a few pots with soil, plant those seeds, water them, pull weeds near your crops, and harvest that food than it is to drive to a store, buy food that was grown using half a million dollars’ worth of equipment, shipped from 1,000 miles away using gas and more very expensive machinery, and all at great expense to the environment meaning the air we breathe and water we drink. The homesteader does not need to hire labour, they are the work force, growing the food that will sustain them as they harvest sunlight borrow water and air, and help the soil to thrive.

Many homesteaders express deep satisfaction with their standard of living and feel that their lifestyle is healthier and more rewarding than more conventional patterns of living.”

So that is why I am blogging about it. Writing about it keeps me more focused on ‘why’ and if one person reads my thoughts and is inspired enough by the activities happening on Opportunity Farm to take steps to be healthier and happier then there is reward.



Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Building from the Bottom Up

Today I found two eggs in the coop where my Light Sussex Chooks are. Despite earlier excitement there are definitely three hens and three roosters in the batch I incubated in September. The cocks have begun to test out their voices so I was hopeful it was egg time. Five months is pretty standard for hens to start laying but I had been led to believe that this breed were a bit slow.

First-time eggs are always small but they should increase in size over the next few weeks. Once they are full size then I can collect some to incubate and start the breeding cycle again. Another six months and I hope to have chickens ready for the pot and if all goes well a rolling program of chicks following on to both breed up more layers and have plenty ready for the freezer whenever needed. It all takes time but today is an important starting point. Up to now we have purchased a few ISA brown pullets each year from a peripatetic chook van. Now we can keep it in house and concentrate on Light Sussex. They lay for longer and are a much bigger bird so are dual purpose. I reckon they look much more beautiful too.

Another project that was started in September and needs a bit of a move on is building a toilet/shower shed. We have 50 scouts coming to stay the night in April and so there is a greater sense of urgency.
So far the building has foundations, floor, stud walls, roof and ceiling.  Now it needs the deck on the front to complete the floor level work.






First I had to dig three holes for stumps to match the others already there. They had to be leveled in all directions and then I tipped a bag of ready-mix concrete in each hole and added 2.5 litres of water. Half an hour later I could add three home made ant caps, a bearer and then six joists. The deck now just needs decking.




 I also inserted one of the windows into its frame so the building looks more alive now. Just having some time to reacquaint myself with this project felt positive and all the challenges and the possibilities start to turn over in my mind. Nine weeks left to complete it - once the harvest eases off.


Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Macadamia Pesto

Basil is in love with this combination of rain and sun. The leaves need to be picked before it turns to flower heads so it is pesto time. We don't have pine nuts and macadamia nuts are cheaper and not imported so it's macadamia pesto time.

First I wash the leaves and pinch off all the stalks. I put a cup of nuts in the mixer then plenty of leaves - about 2 packed cupsworth. I add a packet of shaved parmesan, four cloves of garlic, the juice of a lemon and half a cup of olive oil.




We only have one of those stick mixers and it takes a little while to get through the cheese to the leaves. As it begins to mush, the stick makes it through to the nuts and the pesto starts to get the familiar texture, colour and smell. When it is thoroughly mixed I open a sandwich bag over the end of the mixer and shake some pesto in. I take three serves from the mixer, seal them up and put them into the freezer. With one vegetarian and one who only eats local happy meat there are plenty of times when a bag of pesto is a great option.

 

Monday, February 16, 2015

The Time of our Lives

On Valentine's Day we had a rare treat. A friend was turning 40 and we were invited to her house for a gathering. The bonus was that we could leave all five children to watch movies a few streets away.
At this party I met a newly retired couple who had been residents for just one week. They had bought a 2300 acre property on the Snowy River. The land was cheap and the house liveable. Despite only being there for seven days they had, like me, been bottling fruit that morning. They had inherited a fully established and caged orchard. While they had plenty of ideas of new directions and we talked for hours about sheep and goats and gardens it made me think about how long it takes to be 'established' when creating a place to grow food.

Eighteen years ago I emigrated from England. I had a teaching qualification, a few years in a classroom behind me and enough money to buy a secondhand Subaru. My main aim was to find a piece of land, build a house on it and plant some food. Within eight months I had my dream job - the Head Teacher of a very small school in my chosen valley, deep in the forests of East Gippsland. A year after that I was the proud owner of a 300 acre bush block with no infrastructure except a little cleared land, some tracks and two dams. I could start to garden in an unstructured, ignorant fashion with plenty of experiments and failures. Two years later I was ready to build the house that Matthew built.

Seven years of working full-time and building a house almost single-handed found me with a wife, three small children and another three step-children some of the time. While gardens were started and orchard trees planted, the fences and watering systems lagged behind the inevitable expansions and changes. Wombats and wallabies were a problem, parrots stole all the fruit and bowerbirds scratched up the veggie patch.

More children, more properties and many more animals later, we are settled on Opportunity Farm with regular visits to our bush block home. The orchards are productive and caged, the main vegetable garden has raised beds and overhead watering systems and all the animals have shelter and good fences. We are full of plans and have plenty of areas needing improvement or construction.

A five year old Black Mulberry that is yet to fruit


It has taken time to build up skills, equipment, contacts and livestock. There have been regular interruptions for bushfires, floods and snowdrifts, children, friends and work distractions but food production and farming knowledge has gradually increased.

It has taken time to have the confidence and gumption to make the commitment to living on the land and eating the food we grow and growing the food that we eat. It has taken time to realize the dream just a little more each day. Now we are beginning to practice what we would like to preach.

Now we hope to turn Opportunity Farm into a place where others can come and share in the efforts we have put in and the lessons we have learnt. Today I am exhausted from chopping, splitting and loading firewood, mowing grass and picking fruit in humid 28 degrees. However it is still a good feeling to have the time to do those tasks that make life healthier, happier and more natural.






Sunday, February 15, 2015

Playing Chess with Pigs

The abundance of fruit this year has been excellent for raising pigs. They have gorged themselves on overripe stonefruit and fallen apples. They squeal as the juices dribble down their chins. The peaches they eat like lollies sucking all the flesh off and spitting out the stones.
When they are not eating the food thrown over the fence into their food trough they are either asleep in their little house or scrimmaging about in the pen.
The rain has kept falling and where there is rain and pigs there is mud. Their enclosure was starting to look more like the Somme than a section of grazed paddock. So they needed to move on to pastures new.
While all the pigs we have had seem to respect a single strand of periodically live wire, the thought of having to chase down three excited escapees means that changing their pen needs to be worked out carefully. I have eight panels which are all in use to make a 3x1 rectangle (18m by 6m).
Luckily for me there is a hinge joint fence along one side that will hold them. It was not enough on the night they arrived when two of them ran straight through it and launched a wild pig chase of epic scope and direction. Their increased size and docility means I am pretty sure I can risk it.
Move 1 is to get the three panels from next to the fence and attach them together with fresh star pickets to make two sides of a 2 x 1 rectangle. We use outriggers to string the electric on. The first year we used clips which brings the wire closer to the panels but we found them much harder to undo.
Move 2 is to open up a panel into the new area and use it to make the third side of the rectangle. Only Maud crossed the line, though once I had lugged their house and food trough over the line the other two took the plunge and spread out into the newly mowed section that actually had grass to eat.
After that I could move one of the excess panels to shut the gap where they crossed and reverse the star pickets on that side. Every time I entered the pen to attach an outrigger or move some wire the pigs would nibble on my boots, shirt, trousers or even back. Disconcerting but just exploration for animals without fingers to touch with.
 
Once the solar electric was moved over the pigs were safe in their new quarters and I could start to fill in some of their diggings. It took a couple of hours but I'd rather be sure they stayed in. 

Checkmate.

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Sorting out the Goats 2

Our sheep can be sorted using the yards. They also rather docile, herd together and seem to have limited imaginations. One sheep starts to move and they all go.
Goats are very different. They are stubborn, willful and curious. They are perpetual opportunists, especially those that have had lots of contact with humans.
Our task was to catch all of last spring's kids and put collars on them, move one mother to a different paddock separating her from her kid and to bring back one kid that had escaped from weaning by getting through two electric fences to its mother. The final move was to move a kid away from the buck paddock so that she was not mated too young.
All these movements have to be completed before the days get too short as a reduction in daylight triggers goats to mate. For does the window of opportunity is short. They may be in heat for as little as 12 hours or as much as 48 hours. Bucks are primed all autumn which is why the word 'horny' came into common usage.
Goats were the second animal domesticated (after dogs) and humans have lived with goats for many thousands of years. Due to the fact that bucks allow other bucks to mate with does in their herd while rams are protective of their conquests, goats have developed a reputation and link with lewdness and devilry while sheep are the honourable ones and a more worthy sacrifice to the gods.
So if the does and bucks are not in the right place the bucks will have their 'wicked' way with any female in the paddock. We do not want this year's kids to be mated both because they are too young and because we do not wish to cull excess goats that are pregnant.
All are animals are hand fed - though for the sheep and goats this is rarely in summer. However if we arrive at their gate with a bucket they will usually come running. Once they are distracted by food the goats can usually be caught by the collar and a lead attached. This is harder when the goat has no collar and has never been touched by a human.
Goats are pretty quick when they are alarmed so you may only get one chance to grab. I try to get one arm around the neck and then the other around the back legs. If they are small enough to be able to lift them up them they will often go limp and quiet. When just grabbed by the neck they will buck, twist, pull back sharply and cry out loudly. Pinning them to the ground or into a gate may be best way to subdue them.
Once caught and a lead put on they can be dragged through a gate. Leading most of our goats is a two person affair - one to pull on the lead and the other to go behind the goat to encourage it to keep moving. Many will follow a feed bucket kept tantalizingly on front of its snout and other will keep walking if you stand directly behind it and invade its personal space.
Some goats however will just stop, dig in its heels and require serious dragging by the neck. The goat will let out strangled cries but nothing will convince it to put one foot in front of the other in the direction that you want it to go.
In this case the only solution we have found is for the second person to grab the tail and twist. The discomfort is sufficient to encourage forward motion. It can take a while but the job gets done.
Once we had swapped the goats and kids about we still had the problem of the 'Houdini' kid. She needed some solitary confinement in the goat shed until she goes cold turkey and kicks her milk habit. The other kids seemed to accept their change in parental care stoically after a day of feeble bleating but this kid has attitude. Several times we are drawn up to the shed to check on her as the cries have become so desperate and strangled that we worry she has harmed herself. But no, she is just persistent and determined - just like her mother, who was our first poddy.
 

Once she has settled down then we are right for the season - we hope. With goats you just can't be sure.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Vacola musings.

The window of time between picked ripe peaches a box of rotten fruit is not great.
My boxes of peaches were fast developing brown spots. So it was vital to get them in jars before the pigs gained a feast.

Bottling in Australia seems to be sewn up by Fowlers who manufacture the Vacola system. This consists of jars, lids, clips and seals as well as the preserver units and specially adapted thermometers.  They are still available commercially though in our area only the lids and seals are on the supermarket shelves (though the owner of our biggest local supermarket failed to recognize his own product or know what the product was for!) Most people I know have gained their equipment secondhand. I think our two units, about a hundred jars and relevant equipment has cost us about $10! Last night I picked up another twenty jars from a lady who had mentioned her pantry clearing at the store where I purchased some seals. Did I want some more jars? Certainly.

There are many different types, shapes and sizes of jars, all known by different numbers which are stamped into the glass. The main difference between these types is the size of the opening – size 3 or size 4 – the number being the diameter of the opening in inches. I prefer the size 4 jars because you can get your hand in to arrange the fruit better.

First the jars need to be washed, rinsed and sterilized in the oven for long enough to kill off any bacteria. I am not sure how long this is supposed to be, but I give them at least 20 minutes at about 160 degrees. It is long enough to make the jar very hot if you take them out straight away. You do not have to do this step as the jars are going to be heated but it makes complete success more guaranteed.
I put the sealing rings on first as they can be tricky and stretching them enough to fit when the jar is full can lead to a very messy floor and lots of swearing. Putting the rings in hot water for a while beforehand can make them easier to fit on.
Then I mix up some sugar syrup. A light syrup is made with 1kg sugar to 5 litres water, a medium uses twice as much sugar and a heavy syrup is equal sugar and water. For peaches I use a light syrup but would tend to err on more sugar than less. Honey can be used as an alternative, but I've never tried it.
 
Peaches are cut into slices and I peeled each slice. Other years I haven't this year's crop had some discoloration on the outside of the skin which looked much more appetizing when removed. As the peaches were very ripe removing the skin was easy. At first I tried a trick of putting the whole peach in very hot water and then into ice cold water, each for a few seconds. It didn't seem to make much difference so I abandoned this pretty quickly. I also started off peeling the whole peach but found it much easier when it was cut into slices.

All the skins and brown spots went in the scrap bucket for the pigs and the slices are placed carefully around the outside of the jar. After a couple of layers a slice needs to go in the middle to build the layers around. I add the sugar syrup at several stages so that the air bubbles are not trapped underneath the fruit. If there are bubbles I slide a knife down the side to release them.
When the fruit reaches just below the collar I cover it with syrup and put the lid on. Two clips at right angles hold the lid on firmly. Then I place the full jar in the preserver. I can fit eight size 4 (no. 20 or no.31) in the preserver. Then I fill the preserver with water until it reaches the level of the thermometer hole on the outside.
 
For peaches it is supposed to take 60 minutes to raise the temperature to 54 degrees F which works on almost the lowest gas setting on our stove, then heat much faster to get to 83 degrees F in 30 minutes and then hold that temperature for at least 15 minutes. The jars are removed and left for a day to cool before removing the clips and storing in the shed or pantry.
 
It has taken two days to complete 43 jars, in between other farm and domestic chores. Now the peaches are out of the way I can start on the plums and apples.
A great book for all sort of recipes and information about preserving is Sally Wise's ' A Year in a Bottle'. 

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Firewood Collection Made Easier

Choosing a 30 plus degree day in late summer to start the year's firewood collection was probably not the best idea but I have to start sometime.
Even though we own a 300 acre bush block with many thousands of trees on we have always bought some of our wood from the local sawmill. Ready chopped and partly split it always seemed an easy option for the amount of money compared with the hassle of cutting our own.
The other reason why I was reticent to put effort into firewood gathering is that I was useless at chainsaw sharpening. I could get an edge going for a while but soon the saw would be blunt and I found it a mystery how to get it sharp enough. I have always cut posts but sometimes this was a struggle. Chainsaws work best when used regularly. Left alone too long I find my saw - a 17yr old Stihl I have had since new - becomes very difficult to start.
In desperation last year Michelle heard of a device that automatically sharpens the teeth. My kind of gadget, I thought. A visit to a Stihl supplier and I was assured that no such device exists for my saw. The salesman however recommended a sharpening tool that he assured me was better than the two I already had that I hadn't mastered. It was this new tool or admit total failure.
The tool works. I can sharpen the chainsaw! Years of shame over.

 
It is so simple to place the file in the tooth to be sharpened, slide the tool on the prescribed angle - three times and it is sharp.
The other purchase that makes the chainsaw process easier is a bottle for mixing up the fuel. Fill the bottle with fuel up to the line and then add the required amount of 2 stroke oil to be 25:1. Years of rough guesswork over.
 
So now I can collect my own firewood. Four years ago we hired a bulldozer to clear some bush from near the house. The operator kindly piled up the heads and put the trunks aside. This wood has now dried and I have been plundering this pile for the wood shed.
It took two and a half hours and plenty of water to fill the trailer with split wood. I like to split as I load because otherwise there is more handling of heavy rounds at the other end. Already split and now I just have to back up to the wood shed and stack it. One trailer load done - probably another six or seven more needed to see us through winter.

Monday, February 9, 2015

Life's a Peach

We have three peach trees.  Two of them are an Elberta variety but the biggest and best producing is a J.H.Hale. They were planted twelve years ago and have been caged for about seven. For some years when they were small we netted them and we got enough fruit for dribbling chins and a small box of Vacola jars. Since they were caged we have harvested a higher proportion of the fruit but to keep the trees small enough to fit in the cage the pruning has needed to be hard. In response the tree puts lots of energy into new shoots and less into fruit.
For three years the blossom was hit either by frost or wind. The crop has been very small and after a few to drool on there was none to bottle. Exactly one year ago today a major bushfire raged all around the valley first moving swiftly south-east and then after a wind change back to the north. The house and orchards somehow survived in a small unburnt patch. However the only access road was closed for the next three weeks before locals were allowed back in. By then the peaches had ripened and rotted on the ground.
But this year the blossom survived and the rains came at the right time. The peaches are beautiful, big and juicy. This morning after picking two 10 litre containers of tomatoes, three boxes of plums, a shopping bag of zucchinis, plenty of basil and a sack of apples I approached the peach trees and found the ground littered with fallers and almost all the fruit on the tree at perfect ripeness. Two polystyrene boxes and two 10litre containers full.

 
Time for 'Vacola'ring. We have two Vacola units - (one purchased from a clearing sale brand new with two boxes of bottles for $10!) and plenty of jars. People seem to know we 'do it the hard way' so donate us their boxes of bottles, clips and lids when they are clearing out the shed.
The only part of the process that is best not recycled are the rings. A call to Irene from the local store and she has put four boxes of rings aside. All we need is some sugar for the syrup and then the bottling can begin. Hopefully a year's supply of bottled peaches. Served with homemade custard, yoghurt or cream on a July night and you are immersed in a taste of summer. Mmmm....

Milk detail

Every morning about 9.30am Hailey is waiting, hovering around the dairy, hoping that now is the time when her breakfast is served. The ting of the stainless steel milk pail handle is her first clue that I am on the way. I bring a bucket half full of hot water, collect the cloth from the washing line where it has been blowing in the wind and head through the gate to the dairy.
I put the milk pail and cloth on the shelf and take the hot water with me into the feed store. Some of the hot water is poured onto a large dollop of molasses and melted into a sweet smelling brown soup with a stick. I collect Hailey's red bucket from near the gate she is enticed through to separate her from Comet the calf.
I add in a scoop of beef nuts, a scoop of stablemate grain, three scoops of Lucerne chaff, two scoops of pollard (to slow her down) and give it a mix by hand. Then the molasses is poured on top and Hailey is drooling as it thuds into the feeding trough. I bring the rest of the hot water, prop open the door to the feed shed so Hailey can see her calf and head back round to the stanchion to lock her in. The red bucket I place near the gate for Hailey to clean out when she is ready. After putting the milking chair in place, I give the teats a quick wash and some udder cream to keep them supple and we are ready for milking.
Once I have collected all I am going to get: I place the milk pail up out of the way of wandering horns and keen calfs, put the milking chair back in its spot, put the udder cream on the shelf, squeeze out the cloth and ditch the rest of the hot water. I release the stanchion, shut the feed store door and head up to the gate to let Comet race to hassle her mum for some milk she has stored away just in case.
Then I head to the house via the washing line for the cloth and strain the milk into a jug. I use DeLeval disc filters. The packet on the go has 200 filters with a diameter of 200mm. The last packet was a little bigger - 230mm - which was a better size because as you pour from the pail there is always a little that escapes over the top edge of the filter.
Once the filter has collected all the hair and dirt the milk is ready to be poured into bottles. We mainly use 2l bottles. 'These are washed and then sterilized in the oven after each use. Bottles are kept in the fridge door and if they bank up then it is the pigs lucky day. Then the pail and jug need to be washed carefully and left to dry till the next time.

All in all it takes about 20 to 30 minutes of my day to do all this. If I was to price my time compared to the cost of milk it would not be economical but thank goodness economics doesn't have much value at Opportunity Farm. It is one of the routines I wouldn't want to give up.

Saturday, February 7, 2015

A Glorious Day

6.30am on a school weekday finds me porridging in the kitchen, wrestling with packed lunches and devising new ways to encourage small humans to arise and face the day - preferably with school uniform on.
Winters at Opportunity Farm can be long and each morning the fire needs tending and the house warming before there is much success at getting the others up. That's why some summer weekend days it is great to leap out of bed, throw on some clothes and head out the door before anyone else is up.
This morning the dew was heavy and glistening as I walked up through the paddock. The final section of fence where I have been adding Hinge Joint to keep the goats in was beckoning. At our corner post there is a stile over which the human kids climb on their way to catch their bus to their NSW school. I climbed over to tie on the wire and looked back over Opportunity Farm and soaked up the sights and sounds. There were lots of sounds. The separated goat kids and mums were still calling to each other, the dogs were barking, the calf was asking for his mother back and the birds were announcing that it was a beautiful day. I tried to capture this natural cacophony but my camera is old fashioned technology and decent sound was beyond it.
Opportunity Farm from its SE corner
Once I had secured and tightened the fence with Gripples the sun had dried the dew and heat was promising much. Time for breakfast and the morning chores and to chase those children out of bed.
More apples to dry, the air conditioner to build into the wall of the hanging shed and some shelves to put up in the pantry. Outside jobs but out of the sun.
The girls wanted to ride. Opal didn't think this was such a good idea and ran away when approached with a leadrope. She was finally cornered and the tacking up could commence. She snorted and stamped but submitted to the indignity and discomfort of being saddled. It was a fine day for a ride but progress was painfully slow. Harley just wanted to put his head down and eat. My six-year old daughter just isn't strong enough to pull his head up as often as he wants to put it down for another mouthful. Opal would walk for a bit and then stand still despite being spurred on by an enthusiastic though not strong girl on her back. Still as long as I was there to encourage all four of them the walk progressed. I have no experience with horses and am in the dark about most equine activities.
 As a child my older sister was keen on horses and helped out at a stables for a while. This came to an abrupt end when we were sheltering from the wind and rain at a Welsh lake. To our amazement a Mr.Whippy van made it up the hill to the almost empty car park tootling 'Greensleeves'.Taking pity on the entrepreneurial or simply dim ice-cream man we purchased some 99 cones. The Welsh Mountain ponies obviously knew the van as a source of food and approached us for a lick. When my sister turned her back on the pony to protect her icecream it was so offended it took a chunk out of her back. Horses were off the agenda after that.
 Anyway I am happy to encourage pony riding and to see the joy on my girls' faces makes it a very worthwhile project.
   
 The day ended with a thunderstorm and downpour that cleared the air and watered the gardens. Only three more summer weekends to go. I hope they are all as glorious as this one.

Friday, February 6, 2015

Sorting out the Goats from the..... Goats

The fencing around the grove and the paddock boundaries is completed enough to let the goats back in. Now there is a chance to sort them out and get them into herds that can and should be bred together when they come into heat in autumn.

Pearl, Posy, Queenie and Cedric explore their new quarters

Cedric is our Boer buck. He was a poddy so he is small and mostly friendly. As bucks go he is not too gross and only pees on himself and sucks himself when really provoked. There is often the delicious aroma that only a buck can produce wafting around him but he does the job when required. He is to be the king of the newly fenced paddock and the does that are to accompany him are those that are not his daughters and who don't have good dairy genetics.

Posy was our first goat and hence the tamest and most opportune. If there is a chance of food or a gate is opened a crack Posy is the first there. Her Toggenburg heritage provides her and most of her offspring with distinctive toggles on their necks but none so far have gained the grey/brown coat.

Pearl is only goat we have ever milked but her udders were a little small and her time as a 'wandering' semi-wild goat makes her cautious around humans. She has a decent goatee and some darker shades to her white coat.

Queenie was Pearl's kid that came with her mum when we got them. She must have gained some Toggenburg from her father's side as she shares the toggly neck with Posy.

These three does and the buck were separated with a little bribery and a certain degree of brute force (in Pearl's case). The magic red bucket of food proves very tempting and is enough to make most of our animals start to run towards us in the hope that it is for them.

The does left behind their kids so this evening there is plenty of noise and pathetic bleating to pull on the heartstrings. We will feed up the kids once they have got used to this arrangement while the mums and dads have to make do with the grass in the paddock until winter. Not unsurprisingly Posy's kid made it through two electric fences to her mother but by dusk the other two kids were still bleating. The weaning begins.

 It is a sad but necessary part of growing up for us all.

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Reducing the Shopping List

Thursdays are complicated. Two interstate trips to take young girls to dancing lessons. I get the later shift that involves a two hour wait in the big 'smoke' - the NSW town of Bombala. By the time I get into town there is only the two supermarkets, the two pubs, a service station and one café still open. Only the pubs are active after 7pm.

Still it is the best time for the big weekly shop.

However today as I trolleyed around Foodworks it didn't seem like a 'big' shop. In the fruit and veg section I only grabbed some mushrooms, a tub of cream from the cold section, two rolls of dog food, some teabags, a tin of baked beans and some rolled oats. $45 and I was out the door. It was very satisfying to walk past so many sections and know that I didn't need to buy any of the products there.

Opportunity Farm is providing us with meat, eggs, milk and at this time of year pretty much all of our fruit and vegetables. We make our own bread, biscuits, yoghurt, desserts and even washing powder - many of the ingredients for these we can get from an occasional visit to the wholefood shop in Bega.
The reward for all the healthy exercise maintaining the farm is lots of homegrown food and emptier trolleys. I like this life.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Process Time

Picking is one thing - turning it into food that will be used is another. The mountainous harvest needed to be sorted and the ripest needed processing before ripeness turns rotten.

First the tomatoes are washed and sorted. The ripe for the pot and the unripe for the window shelf.

 
 Homegrown garlic and onion go in first to be sautéed before the juices of the tomatoes slowly fill up the largest pot we have. Zucchinis add bulk and flavor.


After simmering for a couple of hours the resultant mush is pureed into a sort of spaghetti sauce. Jars are washed and sterilized in the oven. The sauce is poured in, lids applied and the jar upended to ensure the remaining air is sterilized too. Fifteen jars to add to the growing stash in the shed.
Meanwhile the ripest peaches were reduced to puree. Three trays of fruit leather and three large jars of pie filling. The boxes of plums will live in the pantry to ripen further.

 
The apples were sorted into those for the pigs, those for immediate use and those that can be kept for later ventures. Eight dehydrator trays worth of peeled and sliced apples will be used to bolster the lunch boxes and satisfy those ever-hungry between meals. A dessert of apple and plum crumble will also serve as an incentive to ensure the main meal of homegrown chicken, potatoes, broccoli, scrambled eggs and shop-bought carrot is fully eaten. The chicken jostles for space in the oven with the fruit leather and two loaves of bread. A kitchen day, rewarding and productive.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Getting the Conditions Right for Butchering

Whenever sheep or goats have been butchered at Opportunity Farm, they were hung up in the shed where we park the cars. This could be quite a surprise for anyone arriving home, flinging open the sliding doors to find a carcass or two swinging in the breeze. We are fortunate that our neighbour does this task for us so we often did not know exactly when it was going to happen.
An uninsulated tin shed is not the best place to hang a beast. In winter or on cool days it was OK but not for as long as the meat needed to become rested and tender. In summer it was a no-go.

So we needed a special place to keep carcasses cool. A small room was built in one of the sheds - concrete floor, insulated walls and ceiling. Two strong hanging rails were bolted to the ceiling. This was fine but still needed something to lower the temperature.

First an air-conditioner was purchased, a frame built and it poked through a wall into the room. This was a great device but it did not cool the room lower than 16 degrees. Not cool enough.
A trawl on Ebay seemed to provide us with a solution. An imported Chinese air cooler claimed to be everything we needed. Once it arrived it was installed. It needed to be inside the room so the hole for the air-conditioner had to be filled in and brackets installed in the ceiling. Hopes were high as we turned it on. The fan made a nice noise but the room temperature went up. Internal investigation of this unit showed it had no compressor or coolant. Back to square one.

Our local air-con man (local in the widest sense - 140kms away) said that he would have a look at the unit. Several weeks later came the news that it would cost thousands for the additional devices to make the air cooler effective.

Once we realized that what we were after was a 'hanging shed' - a place that kept cool to a few degrees in the hotter parts of the day a few times a year - and not a "coolroom" - a place that stays cool at almost zero degrees indefinitely 24/7 - then we could work on a new plan.
The original air conditioner could 'at our own risk' be doctored to cool lower than 16 degrees. A few more months of trying to coordinate dropping it off and picking up both devices came to an end today when they were collected.
The Returned Air-Conditioner Unit outside the 'Hanging Shed'
 
Now to rebuild the frame and the hole in the wall and maybe... just maybe.... the room will cool enough to hang some beasts and clear some of the backlog. Fingers crossed!

Monday, February 2, 2015

A Good Haul

Mondays are spent at our bush property. There we have 311 acres of steeply timbered country with about 10 acres partly cleared closer to the road and the valley bottom.
The great advantage for us is the elevation and climate. At about 300m above sea level and with an almost Mediterranean climate we can grow a much wider range of plants for a longer growing period than at Opportunity Farm.  Here at 900m we can have long winters, snap frosts and greater wind chill factor.
The other benefit is that there we have had a much longer time to establish orchards and gardens. These are caged with chicken wire and bush poles so we can trust in harvesting without parrots and cockies scoffing the lot. Today I put time into the vegetable garden - trimming off the lowest leaf stalks of the tomatoes, weeding and trimming back.

February is peak harvest time so I also picked a couple of buckets of tomatoes. They are picked when there is any orange colour at all and brought back to ripen up on the kitchen window shelves. A box of zucchinis was garnered for the kitchen and the piglets. However it was the fruit that was most abundant.
We have had very little stonefruit in the past couple of years - too hot, too cold or too windy at the wrong time but this year looks to be a good one. Two plum trees are laden and they have been watched eagerly for ripeness. Today there were a lot of fallers and plenty that were just about there. A box of good ones for preserving and a box of fallers for the pigs.
The peaches are also getting close so there was another two boxes of those. Down in the apple orchard the first two trees to ripen are Gravensteins - they are a large apple that goes slightly yellow with red stripes when they are ripe. Again lots of fallers and plenty left on the tree. The two large boxes will need to be sorted and the good apples put aside for juicing when we have enough to merit borrowing the pedal-powered juicer.

A good haul for one day and plenty of work to do to sort and process so the harvest can be enjoyed all year round.
A Fine February Harvest